In the US last week, two men wereshot and killed by police officers—both victims were African American and both had their last moments caught on camera, and subsequently uploaded to social media. On 7 July in Dallas, Texas, thousands gathered downtown to march through the city in a Black Lives Matterprotest. The movement campaigns againstpolice violence towards African Americans —a recentstudy by a Harvard professor concluded that African Americans and Hispanic are 50%more likely to be victims of police brutality than white Americans.

At the protest, agunman shot and killed five police officers and wounded six others. After 45 minutes of negotiation with the sniper, police decided touse a robot and C-4 explosives to kill the shooter—representing thefirst time a robotic system has been used by police in a deliberately lethal manner. The use of the robot has sparkeddebate about theethics and legality of such use of force. A new piece on Wired has assessed why the robot was likely theonly choice police had in this instance, andthis article from Fortune explains that the legality of the ‘killer robot’. BothThe New York TimesandThe Atlantichave weighed in on how the use of robots changes the way police interact with technology in law enforcement. There’s a lot to read on the topic, but some picks arehere,here andhere.

CT Scan

Syria and Italy cooperate on countering terrorism?

Damascus isoffering data on European jihadists in exchange for restoring diplomatic relations with Rome. Negotiations began on 4 July and included a visit by Major General Deeb Zeitoun, head of Syrian intelligence to Italy, and anexchange between Bashar al-Assad and Italian secret service chief Alberto Maneti in Syria. Major General Zeitoun travelled to Italy for the meeting despiteEU sanctions blacklisting him. It’s alleged that Syria promised to exchange information on EU citizens who have joined Daesh in return for Italy attempting to influence the EU’s Higher Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, into lift economic sanctions on Syria. Significantly, this marks the first official contact between high level Syrian and EU officials since2011.

Capacity building for Bangladesh

In the wake of the 1 JulyDhaka attack thatkilled 20, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Nisha Desai Biswal, arrived in Bangladesh on 10 July to discuss options for US assistance in law enforcement and countering terrorism.Discussions with Prime Minister Sheik Hasina touched on capacity building for Bangladesh on counterterrorism, intelligence collection and training of law enforcement officers. The US had previously offered FBI assistance to investigate the attack. India alsopledged to work ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with Bangladesh on countering terror attacks in the region, the incident adding impetus to acounterterrorism cooperation pact between the two countries first proposed in2015 which has not yet been signed.

The World Bank hasagreed to loan Vietnam US$560 million for two projects to support urban development, climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods in the Mekong Delta. Recent extreme weather phenomena in the Mekong Delta region has negatively affected the lives of the 1.2 million people living there and the credit will be used to help the provinces adapt to climate change in a sustainable way. This article from Forbesexamines the link between climate change and conflict—arguing that climate change could increase the likelihood of conflict if combined with pre-existing driving factors such as ethnic tensions, making it a national security issue.

The next great earthquake under Bangladesh

Anew piece from The Earth Institute Colombia University has examined how a massive earthquake possibly building under Bangladesh could impact the most densely populated nation on earth. The fast-growing but poor nation is unprepared if a major earthquake was to eventuate—it’s hugely overpopulated—with natural gas fields, heavy industries and electric power plants located close to potential fault lines meaning they’re likely to be destroyed completely with disastrous implications for residents living in close proximity. Watch a 10 minute documentary on the problemhere.